Integration of different geospatial factors to delineate groundwater potential zones using multi-influencing factors under remote sensing and GIS environment: a study on Dakshin Dinajpur district, West Bengal, India

In the present context of the groundwater crisis, this study attempts to delineate potential groundwater zones using the multi-influencing factors technique under the remote sensing (RS) and GIS environment. Various influencing factors of groundwater storage such as geomorphology, geology, soil type, aquifer thickness, rainfall, slope map, distance from the stream, elevation map, lineament density, land use, and land cover have been used. These thematic layers were integrated into a single frame to delineate potential zones. In this study, it has been found that geology, slope, geomorphology, and soil type played a significant role in identifying the potential zones. A very high potential zone covers nearly 11.66% area, 19.13% by high potential zone, 23.98% area by medium potential zone, 27.20% by low potential zone, and 18.04% by the very low potential zone of the test area. As validity is essential to establish the model, this study has been validated with Kappa statistics with the agreement value of 0.718.